Lost 24 Ice Flurry, 30 Blizzard and 16 Stocking, I got the new replacements for them. The new caps and lights they have should work. BUT What A pain in the azz.. The Blizzards were a Pain to string at first, I think I got it down to 10 min a link now.

we have not been reccomending LED for 8 years now. I have never really been a fan. but don't worry guys, I am sure the NEW leds are so much more highly advanced than last years. And I have to admit, The few LED C-9's from 3 years ago are still holding up decent. Of course, 4 years ago, not so much.

Speaking of which, has anyone looked at the new warranty policy out there? 90 days from the shipping date!! I almost fell over when i read that!!

It looks likes what they are saying is the frames and mounting hardware are covered but if the lights crap out your SOL. They are saying the warranty only covers seasonal use of 90 days or less. It kind of looks like overall they are saying the hell with any issues like last year and they will foot the bill no longer.
User beware from now on and buy at your own risk.

I actually talked to Mike about it, and apparently there were some that were renting out product, then would monkey with it and return it.

Either way,it explains to me to drop in price. It concerns me, I use their (I will call them sculptures). I have an order I have to put in for gift boxes and snow flakes, but no way will I do anything with LED.

Truth be told, if it wasn;t for Mike, I wouldn't do anything there any longer.

I didn't realize until now that the convenient split of the company allowed them to dump a lot of warranty responsibility. I'm sure others lost a lot more then I did but to see some of my product that died in 2011 (and not be replaced due to being out of stock) being refurbished at my expense doesn't make me a happy camper. Especially knowing the new company is profiting at my expense.

All I'm going to be considering buying going forward is mostly LL's if needed and possibly garland. Everything else you can pretty much buy for less else where. This is my first year pushing garland/wreaths and I want to see if the HD quality is noticeably better then CDI.

I actually talked to Mike about it, and apparently there were some that were renting out product, then would monkey with it and return it.

Either way,it explains to me to drop in price. It concerns me, I use their (I will call them sculptures). I have an order I have to put in for gift boxes and snow flakes, but no way will I do anything with LED.

The shipping rates from HBL were kind of high and the return rates a consumer would pay are even higher. Between the shipping both ways and the PIA of going to a shipping place it would be a lot of work to rent stuff this way. Plus in no time at all the pattern of people returning items would become apparent. Not saying it wouldn't happen but there's no way it could be a problem on much of a scale.

I'm staying 100% LED so hopefully things will be better. I hope the LL's go to sealed bulbs like the other light sets since it seems to be better quality. I didn't lose a single stand of the sealed strings HBL sent me last year but the non sealed units continue to fail at high rates.